Magic Monday

[ecosophia]

It's getting on for midnight as I type this, so here we go with a new Magic Monday. This week's classic of Western occultism is The Book of Druidry by Ross Nichols, founder of the Order of Bards Ovates and Druids and arguably the 20th century's most significant Druid theoretician and teacher. (It's basically a runoff between him and Lewis Spence, several of whose books will feature here in due time.) Nichols was a poet and a painter, and his book is an intensely personal vision of the Druid Revival tradition; as with most of the wortwhile books in that tradition, it's not something to take on faith, but rather well suited to read, brood over, meditate on, and then decide what in it works for you. If you're anywhere in the vast and quirky forest of Revival Druidry, and you haven't read The Book of Druidry yet, I highly recommend it. 

Ask me anything about occultism and I'll do my best to answer it. Any question received by midnight Monday Eastern time will get an answer. If you're in a hurry, or suspect you may be the 143,916th person to ask a question, please check out the very rough version 1.0 of The Magic Monday FAQ here.

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With that said, have at it!

***This Magic Monday is now closed -- and yes, this means you.  See you next week!***
 

And don't forget to look up your Pangalactic New Age Soul Signature at CosmicOom.com! 
 

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Hello JMG. Hope you've had a pleasant and productive week.

1. You mentioned on previous MMs that you have Aspergers syndrome, which makes it more difficult to function socially and empathize with others. Do you think that someone with the emotional intelligence to write novels can truly be on the autistic spectrum? You seem to have plenty of insight into the psyches of your characters. Is there a difference between understanding fictional as opposed to real people?

2. What percentage of your time would you say is devoted to writing as opposed to editing? Are you the kind of writer who generally gets it right in a single draft, or do you have to revisit a text multiple times?

3. Hemingway used to say that a writer’s job is to sit in front of the typewriter and bleed. Is the experience of writing a strenuous one for you? Do you have the sensation of hard work, and has it gotten easier with experience?

4. Are there any comments you’ve received on a Magic Monday that were so entertaining or insightful that you felt compelled to share them with your wife?

[ecosophia]

1) Yes, I'm quite sure I have Aspergers syndrome, if that's what you're asking. A lot of people don't understand what that amounts to; while there's a lot of variation from person to person, one thing Aspies have in common is that they lack mirror neurons -- the specific net of neurons in a normal human brain that have the function of "mirroring" what goes on in other people's brains, using nonverbal cues. I don't have those, and so I'm very poor at figuring out what other people are thinking and feeling. That's not a lack of emotional intelligence, just the absence of a sense organ most people have -- and the way around it, if you're a novelist, is to pay very close attention to your own inner life, and to read books by other people who reflect on their inner lives (everything from autobiographies and memoirs to good novels).

2) I'd say about half my writing time is writing, the rest is editing. I go over a draft dozens of times, making many small changes and the occasional large one.

3) No and no. Writing is a delight to me. Fiction, especially -- there are very few things in the world I enjoy more than working on a novel when the story's really flowing.

4) We talk over my commentariat fairly often. Sometimes it's comments that are entertaining or insightful, but we also laugh at my trolls together.

[(Anonymous)]

How should I best make us of the banishing part of the SOP?

Should I use a theme? Any ideas?

Thanks a bunch

[ecosophia]

Experiment and see what works best for you. Some people like to banish specific things, others find that it works best to simply say something general, e.g., "And in the name of (element) I banish from within me and around me and all my doings all harmful influences and hostile magic and every imbalance of the nature of (element). I banish these things far from me."

[(Anonymous)]

1) I’ve been working through LRM and practicing every day for 6 months without skipping a day. However, lately I find that my resistance to the practice has grown. The early beginner’s enthusiasm is gone, I’m starting to have a more realistic idea of how long mastery will take. The habit hasn’t kicked in yet and I still struggle to practice every day (I usually have problems sitting down and starting the practice, but I can go on for hours once I start). After having it stressed to me (by you and others), I understand that persistence is key at this stage, but I’d like to hear it from the horse’s mouth that my experience is a story of things on course, on time and under budget.

2) Due to the erratic nature of my schedule, I usually practice late in the evening prior to going to bed. Are exercises such as the LBRP and MP still effective in this situation? Do the benefits carry over into the following day?

3) I understand that the point of ethical love magic is to make onself a more desirable partner, rather than trying to override the will of others. Are there any legit sources for such workings that are beginner-friendly? I’m aware that your Encyclopedia of Natural Magic presented some options in terms of natural magic. Qabalistically, I assume talismans to Netzach are common?

[ecosophia]

1) That's totally normal, and in fact it's around the 6 month point that a lot of people get exactly that reaction. You're facing the test that will determine whether you become a mage, or not. Press on!

2) I did that for a while when I worked an early shift, and it worked fine. Yes, the effects carry over.

3) Yes, Netzach talismans are certainly one way to do it. It depends on what the factors are that make you less than desirable; introspection, meditation, and divination can all be useful in sorting that out.

Druid Grade Consecrations

[(Anonymous)]

I consecrated my serpent's egg the other day, and I'm wondering if it worked or not.

A few days before this, I consecrated my sickle. The ritual went smoothly and felt very powerful, as though I had stepped into another world, and all day afterward I felt charged, energized and excited. 

The egg, on the other hand, did not go so well. I've been using a space in the back yard for these rituals, and it happened that during the time I had set aside, one neighbor was doing laundry, which fills the entire neighborhood with the toxic reek of dryer sheets, while the other neighbor was having a pool party! Neither could see me over the fence, but I could hear and smell them.

Noticing this, I did a geomancy chart to determine whether or not the ritual would work. I got: RW: Llosgwrn y Ddraig, LW: Gwyn, J: Bendith Fach. The way of points leads to Llawenydd as the third mother. So I took that as a Yes, and went ahead with it. I assumed that the difficulties with the neighborhood was a test: Do you have the internal power to block out all external distractions and focus on your magic? Then you can do this ritual.

Well, things quickly started to go wrong. The wind blew out my candles. That's fine, it blew out the candles during the sickle consecration, and that went well anyway. But then it blew out my incense. Then my lighter stopped working, so I had to pause the ritual, go inside, light the incense on the stove, and come back out. When I got to the SRP, I accidentally made the sign of Earth while calling Fire, didn't realize it until I was calling Water, and decided to start the ritual again from the beginning. When I got to the egg itself, I felt that I didn't hold it for long enough in the Earth pentagram, and so I wasn't sure if it got enough Earth energy. I messed up a sentence of the analysis of the Grand Word, which wouldn't have been that big a deal (I re-read the ritual earlier on in the day and found I'd been saying part of it incorrectly), but it was when added on top of everything else.

Finally, once the ritual was done I felt drained, disappointed, and somewhat depressed. After consecrating my sickle, I felt like I had just come back from a visit to the kingdom of Logres; the only issue was that the mundane world felt rather dull for a day or so. After the egg, it was the opposite-- I felt like I'd spent the hour badly, and I wanted to be back in the regular world. 

Some parts of the ritual did feel powerful. I noticed when I consecrated my wand that, when I held it in the pentagrams, it felt like I was extending it into the elemental realms, for all the beings there to behold; I had the same feeling to at least some extent this time. The grand word felt powerful, even though I made a mistake, and so did the Spirit pentagram, although I wasn't sure whether I should use the same or opposite-gender deity for the name of the 9th sphere. (And actually I can't remember which one I used.)

I also noticed, though, that my attitude toward the tool in question was very different between the sickle and the egg. After consecrating the sickle, I felt like swinging it around like a mighty weapon. The egg, on the other hand, felt way too heavy and awkward as I wore it during the various banishings. 

Given all that, though, do you think it was a failed consecration? Should I repeat the consecration, or should I treat it as a mildly-flubbed initiation (like Regardie's adeptus minor initiation?) that can nevertheless have an enduring effect? 

Re: Druid Grade Consecrations

[ecosophia]

This is a common experience, and it doesn't mean that the consecration failed. You might choose to repeat the consecration, but if you do that, reconsecrate all of your working tools, and think of it as a way of adding power to things already powerful, and of getting more experience with rituals of this kind.

[(Anonymous)]

If a person joined AODA and eventually became a priest in the GCC would they lose their priest card in a manner of speaking if they moved on to the CGD at some point in the future?

[ecosophia]

No, we're not ADF! ;-)

Seriously, the GCC doesn't hand out priest cards. Once you are ordained to the priesthood of the GCC that's permanent; you can be asked to leave the organization if you misbehave, but you can't be deprived of the ordination. No real ordination can be taken away by anyone else. Furthermore, the DOGD (the order based on the CGD system) isn't a religious organization, it's a magical order, and we don't worry about what religion our members follow.

[(Anonymous)]

I know I wrote this down but I can’t find it, sorry. Do you e-mail a job application at the hour of Venus or Jupiter for best results?

—Mauve Eldritch Puppy 🐶

Do Pups, or even grownup Hounds, come in Mauve?

Back when Mom was perpetrating poodle 🐩 puppies on a panting world, it was common to see white poodles dyed some pastel color, usually pink. I doubt you could get it done today, even though it’s harmless food coloring, without attracting an angry mob of animal-welfare Karens. (I’m in favor of animal welfare but not of Karening about it.)

[ecosophia]

In American folk magic, it's Friday during an hour of Venus.

As for poodles, I once saw a really attractive standard poodle who was coke-bottle green, and I thought it worked very well. Maybe the Karens should be given poodle cuts and dyed bright orange -- a sort of protective coloration...

[(Anonymous)]

I'm having some issues with my family: they are very much the upper class liberals we discuss on your other blog, and not just do I find I have nothing in common with them, but I find our worldviews are so different as to render it impossible to communicate, and making all interactions with them frustrating. They can't stand I'm living my life the way I am, and are getting increasingly unhinged about the fact I don't enjoy the technology they use obsessively; and having to deal with their insanity has gotten very, very old.

Could I use the banishing component of the sphere of protection to banish them from my life? At the moment, it's the only ritual I know, and I'm getting kind of desperate to get rid of them.

[(Anonymous)]

I’m not JMG, but I suggest you think long and hard before banishing kin from your life, if for no other reason that as conditions grow worse in the West, you may need their help, or vice versa. Good luck!

[(Anonymous)]

A continuation from a question from last week. You said a Gnostic could probably practice Hoodoo without any problems so I wonder if a Gnostic could work with Knight's Experience of Inner Worlds?

[ecosophia]

If you're one of the explicitly Christian kinds of Gnostic -- say, Johannite or Valentinian -- yes, you should be able to do that. Knight's system does call very specifically on Christ, though, so if that's any sort of issue, you'll want to do something else instead.

Online Pagan conference

[(Anonymous)]

Some readers may be interested in the Scottish Pagan Federation online conference, which was held over the last few days. Its videos, and a magazine, are linked from this page: http://www.scottishpf.org/oc20.html

Re: Online Pagan conference

[ecosophia]

Thanks for this.

[(Anonymous)]

Last week my comment on Slaanesh and the collapse of the political left into madness prompted some interesting discussions, so I'm planning to follow up on it. So far, I've found a few corners of the internet where people have reported spiritual experiences with the Warhammer Chaos Gods, so it does seem to be a thing.

I'm looking for demographics on Games Workshop players, but they seem to be limited to the US and UK, and both of those countries seem to be the centre of the collapse of rationality among the left.

I'd also gone to a Games Workshop store shortly before the shutdown and found the vibe absolutely creepy. It's hard to explain, but I think there's something malevolent there. I'd have to go to a few stores to be sure it wasn't just that one, but it does seem something malevolent was there.

What other steps would you take if you were looking into this?

[ecosophia]

I would be very careful to banish daily and to keep up an active and positive spiritual life. What you contemplate you imitate; Nietzsche's comment about the abyss staring back at you also seems relevant.

[boulderchum]

Salutations JMG!

1. Is there a non Judeo-Christian way of achieving communion and guidance from one's Guardian? The Abramelin rite certainly seems consistent and powerful, but something deep inside me is pushing me away from it.

2. How do the Higher Self and Guardian interact? Do they collaborate on guiding and shaping the personality/life of each incarnation, or is one subservient to the other?

Are there some detailed books on these subjects that would save you a lot of typing and time?

3. Bardon's system seems to lack a banishing/cleansing element to it. Obviously for the body there are Hoodoo/Salt baths in ice cold water, but what about spaces such as rooms and objects like books? Advanced practitioners probably have no trouble, but that's no help for beginners if things start to go sideways.

-Indigo Oracular Skull
(I've been getting a lot of "___ Oracular Skull" results lately)

[ecosophia]

1) There are many of them, going back to classical antiquity. Quite a few modern mages have used the Bornless One rite for that purpose, for example.

2) The guardian spirit or angel is the guide, teacher, and protector of the higher self.

3) You can cleanse a space using Bardon's methods by loading it with an element contrary to the thing you want to get rid of, or you can use the electric or magnetic force in a similar way. Yes, it takes much more expertise to do this than to practice a banishing ritual.

-- Crimson Translucent Stoat

[(Anonymous)]

About how long does it take to work through Experience of The Inner Worlds?

[ecosophia]

One year is the minimum.

[(Anonymous)]

JMG, you made me curious, so I read a couple of old grimoires. Writers assumed readers were men. Could a woman have profitably used the grimoires, or did they have their own? Or both?

[ecosophia]

Nah, remember that in those days the grammatical masculine included the feminine -- "he" meant "he or she" and "man" meant "any human being." Women used the grimoires too.

on Pan, affirmations and harvesting technique

[kallianeira]

happy Monday, JMG and all readers!

three things today.

For Pat in Florida who asked last week about possible correspondence between Pan and other divine forces, have you looked at Thomas Taylor's footnote to the Orphic Hymn to Pan? This, and many of the others, offers numerous comparisons, associations, identifications even, between figures in the Pan(!)theon.
https://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/hoo/hoo15.htm

Secondly, I have beeen thinking about ways of avoiding iron and steel in harvesting herbs for magical use. If your blade is plated with another metal is that good enough? I have some small vintage (fish?) knives with blades plated in sterling silver, what is underneath probably being "nickel silver" which is a non-ferrous alloy anyhow, and they aren't terribly sharp, but in any case just wondering about ways around that issue till BoysMom's son comes out with his flintknapped production range.

An affirmation I have been using for 3 months seems doomed to failure. I think this because others have commented here that they are seeing results after this amount of time and no, I have not a sense of any change. Not because it's not a nicely crafted affirmation, but because what is behind my troublesome behaviour (tardiness) might well be bigger and badder and stronger than an affirmation can handle. Meditation on this leads me to suspect a serious case of learned helplessness.
Remedying that has been a project spanning my adult life and I'd really like to dissolve it entirely, but it is slow work. It would be encouraging for me to be able to resolve one part deliberately.
So I wonder if an affirmation which targets that helpless part of my psyche might have more success than the one directed toward the symptom did. eg "I am powerful"
What do you think?

Many thanks for your magnanimity,

Scintillating Iridescent Elver

Re: on Pan, affirmations and harvesting technique

[ecosophia]

2) Yes, a nonferrous coating will do the job. The old Druids used gilt steel sickles.

3) Very likely, yes, targeting the cause will get better results than targeting the symptom.

-- Umber Nocturnal Weasel

Succubus

[(Anonymous)]

How can I find out if something is a Succubus or just ordinary nocturnal emissions? I am almost 40 and never had any nocturnal emissions until very recently.

Am banishing daily. Any ways to get rid of it in case it is a succubus?

Re: Succubus

[ecosophia]

If you're banishing daily it shouldn't be a succubus. Those are fairly uncommon these days, as the frantic celibacy that helped breed them has gotten rare.

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,

Would accompanying an affirmation with visualization of representative symbols (such as ogham fews) be potentially more effective than visualizing the actual goal?

(I believe you've said somewhere that direct visualisation of your goal can have pitfalls which may be sidestepped by focussing on appropriate symbols instead. I imagine that a well-chosen symbol would help avoid putting energy into random details of the visualisation which miss the point, like the guy who, to get rich, pictured handling cash and then got a job in a bank. I also definitely find it easier to focus on a simple shape, though that is partly because my minds eye is still pretty close to blind.)

Thank you for magic mondays!
-Bewilderness

[ecosophia]

Yes, that's a classic method, and Ogham fews ought to do well for that purpose.

Reading a good book over the weekend, I found-

[(Anonymous)]

'. . .the Linear A inscriptions from Crete turned out to be in a language related to the Tamil tongues-'

Has this gone through the formality of being discovered, or speculated on elsewhere?

Re: Reading a good book over the weekend, I found-

[ecosophia]

Nope. I made it up. I needed something to fill in the notional space between the decipherment of Mayan (which happened in our world) and the translation of the Eltdown Shards (which is pure Cthulhu Mythos, and that's what came to mind.

Thanks

[(Anonymous)]

You know, it wouldn't surprise me.

[(Anonymous)]

JMG,

Thank you for these Magic Mondays. I have two questions for you today:

1. About Giordano Bruno, could you tell us more about Bruno’s death and his ‘curse’…I’ve read he threatened his accusers…but couldn’t find anything about the outcomes…what happened to them? He did say they should be afraid...
Also, could you suggest the better translations of his books? which books to read in what order? Or maybe where to start instead of, if Bruno is too difficult for a beginner? How does your own book fits within the others?

2. About Stoicism…You have mentioned as something worth studying/reading…and probably have already given us a reading list (if anyone can send the link with the recommended authors, thanks in advance!) However I remember you saying that it was flawed and it ended up being very destructive…but cannot remember why? Could you please explain again and maybe redirect to the original post, link or book about it?

3. Not a question - just wanted to say that I read all the ‘tentacles’ as soon as they were released and I really miss having one more to look forward to : (

Not Anonymous - my soul signature is Heliotrope Amphbious Platypus ; P

[robertmathiesen]

Bruno told the court that all he had to do, if they tried to execute him, would be to speak and myriads of beings would come and save him. That was really stupid of him, for the court devised a hideously painful means of silencing him, and he went to the stake unable to make any articulate sound whatever.

[(Anonymous)]

What is a good practice for overcoming vanity?

[ecosophia]

Start by understanding its sources. Journaling is good for that. Once you know why you've got a problem with vanity, you can start addressing the causes.

Evil eye

[(Anonymous)]

What's your take on the 'evil eye'? I can't find any good information beyond 'folklore' that it's a real effect, and the forelore is quite contradictory. Some seem to say it's a deliberate malicious intent passed on by a stare, others that it's an accidental gaze causing misfortune, even without any intent or knowledge. Blue eyes seem to be particularly implicated, but I don't know if this just due to the relative scarcity of blue eyes in the Mediterranean and middle Eastern regions where the belief is still prevalent? Does this relate to the Platonic belief in 'eye-beams' as well, or was that just a flawed theory of optics? I know from experience that I can definitely tell when I'm being watched, and most pets seem to hate cameras. So do eyes, and other image-collecting devices like cameras, emit as well as receive? If so, does anything screen this emission out? (eg. sunglasses)

Re: Evil eye

[ecosophia]

Plato's "eye beams" were, like a lot of early Greek physics, based on a confusion between the material plane and the subtle planes. There are no beams of physical energy flowing out through the eyes, but there are beams of subtle energy projected from the eyes -- you might have had the experience of a lover's glance feeling like a caress; on the etheric and astral planes, it is one. The evil eye is the flip side of that. It can be done intentionally by someone who knows how, but you also get people who are simply so full of malice that it oozes from them via every available outlet. The traditional protections against the Eye are useful if you have to deal with such a person.

As for animals and cameras, my guess there is that it's because cameras don't project anything etheric or astral. They look like eyes, but they're dead, and so animals react to them the way you'd react to being stared at by a corpse.

[(Anonymous)]

Assuming a society was so inclined, how much occultism could be effectively learned through compulsary education? At what point would not developing the will become a problem?

More generally, is it actually possible to force or manipulate someone into thinking for themselves? It doesn't sound like it should work, it sounds a priori wrong. But maybe there's some trick or exploit to get the process going?

[ecosophia]

1) Most tribal societies, and many other traditional societies, inculcate a fair amount of basic occult knowledge in children. It's easy enough to make will training part of the curriculum by weaving it into games and contests. So many people these days lack any strength of will because commercial and political interests batten on the weak-willed, and so anything that could strengthen the will has been carefully cut out of schooling and childraising.

2) Nope. All you can do is clear away as many extraneous obstacles as possible -- for example, if the person relies on you for emotional support, you can make sure they know that you won't punish them if they think thoughts that are different from yours. Other than that, though, it's up to them.

[(Anonymous)]

Are there Druid military chaplains?

[woods90]

Active duty military Druid here. Not that I'm aware of currently. The requirements for Chaplaincy are difficult to impossible to meet for Pagan folks. If you're not from one of the major established religions, getting a Master in Divinity or equivalent theological degree from an accredited institution and having the required 2 years of ministry experience along with an Ecclesiastical Endorsement from a DoD-recognized endorser is a big challenge. I looked into it myself a while back. Typically they just refer Pagans to outside Pagan groups or organizations.

[(Anonymous)]

Hello JMG,

Is it possible to do a sweetening spell to sweeten yourself generally, unrelated to any specific relationship?

After a lot of meditation on my character, I've realised that I'm a very harshly judgmental person, and of course the person I pronounce the harshest judgments on is myself. I did an Ogham divination on whether a sweetening spell on myself was a good idea, and I got the following result:

1st card (me): Ur
2nd card (action): Oir
3rd card (result): Beith

This seems to be a very encouraging result to me.

Also, would it be OK to use a jar of store-bought honey for this spell? In this case the honey would already be in the jar when I put the paper in. Finally, would I be right to assume that the spell needs to be prepared during the hour of Venus on a Friday?

Thanks in advance for your help.

[ecosophia]

Good heavens, yes. As the subsidiary questions, yes, yes, and yes. (You may notice a theme here.)

The most powerful magic you can do is work on yourself. Change yourself and the world will respond by changing how it reacts to you.

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,

1. My wife has been baptised in the Protestant church back when we lived in Germany, and she did so intentionally later in life. I am pursuing magic as outlined in the DMH. I had thought about asking for her permission to do a working for her, but the discussion last week about baptism and magical practice made me wonder whether she is allowed to accept being the recipient of a magical working - what do you think?

2. In terms of the side of magic which deals with awakening the soul's powers (the lunar current in the DMH), what does success in that actually look like? Does it depend on the individual? I'm just wondering if it means tranquility, or not getting swept up in mental chatter, emotional balance, or what. I imagine that you would not want to give that away in case you psych yourself into thinking you're there when you're not, but I am curious what it looks and feels like when the lunar current starts to awaken.

3. Last week in response to a question I had, you wrote that "any astrally based magic will tend to bring up unfinished emotional business." Why does astra-based magic have this effect?

Thank you, as always!

[(Anonymous)]

I am German. The protestant church in Germany is Episcopalian-level liberal, chance is they will have no problems with most magic or religious practices. Go ahead and ask her.